On Tuesday, Barbados TODAY in its regular coverage of news interviewed an 11-year-old child with the permission of his mother. He had just completed a four-hour-long examination for entry into secondary school. During the interview the child made a simple verbal stumble but corrected himself. He is after all, human.
Since then, someone has maliciously downloaded the clip, edited it to only reflect the innocent error and used it to hold the child to ridicule. This person was, after all, inhumane, and committed a crime in attempting to inflict harm and shame.
All of us at Barbados TODAY abhor the abuse of any of its material. We intend to pursue legal action against those responsible for so cruelly misusing and circulating our material, in violation of the Computer Misuse Act, and have notified the police.
We again thank the youngster who so graciously gave of his time and attention to share an insight into an important experience of his life. It is his earnestness, his decency and his sincerity that ought to be a lesson to us all.
His act of self-correction gave us a glimpse into his character on which the future of our nation can confidently rest; those who would use information honestly presented as a weapon of wanton mental cruelty have told us who they really are.
The Barbados Today Inc
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